Search results for: economic evaluation

Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J., Michael J. Bendewald

Abstract:

Addis Ababa is a seat of African Union (AU), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) and hundreds of embassies and consular representatives. Addis Ababa is one of the highest capitals in the world with an average 2400 meters above sea level. It is dichotomous city with a blend of modern high-rise and deteriorating slum quarters. Water supply and sanitation, waste management and housing are continuing to be serious problems. Forest wood based domestic energy use as well as uncontrolled emissions from mobile and fixed sources has endangered the state of the urban environment. Analysis based on satellite imagery has revealed the deteriorating urban environment within the last three decades. The recently restructured city administration has brought improvements in the condition of the urban environment. However, the overwhelming size of the challenges faced by the city dwarfed their fairly good results.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, Urban environment, Slum, Housing, Relocation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6461

Authors: J. Carlos Kuri, Varun Vij, Raymond J. Turner, Orly Yadid-Pecht

Abstract:

Celiac disease (CD) is an immune system disorder that is related to eating gluten. As gluten-free (GF) diet has become a concern of many people for health reasons, a gold standard had to be nominated. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has taken the seat of this role. However, multiple limitations were discovered, and with that, the desire for an alternative method now exists. Nucleic acid based aptamers have become of great interest due to their selectivity, specificity, simplicity, and rapid-testing advantages. However, fluorescence-based aptasensors have been tagged as unstable, but lifespan details are rarely stated. In this work, the lifespan stability of a fluorescence-based aptasensor is shown over a 8-week long study displaying the accuracy of the sensor and false negatives. This study follows 22 different samples, including GF and gluten-rich (GR) and soy sauce products, off-the-shelf products, and reference material from laboratories; giving a total of 836 tests. The analysis shows an accuracy of correctly classifying GF and GR products of 96.30% and 100%, respectively, when the protocol is augmented with molecular sieves. The overall accuracy remains around 94% within the first 4 weeks and then decays to 63%.

Keywords: Aptasensor, PEG, rGO, FAM, RM, ELISA.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 405

Authors: Tarek Abdel Azim Ahmed, Eman Sarhan Shaker

Abstract:

This research aims to explore how well the extended model of internet commerce adoption (eMICA) model is often used to determine the extent of internet commerce adoption in the travel agencies sector in both Egypt and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The web content analysis method was used to analyze the level of adoption of Egyptian travel agencies and Saudi travel agencies according to data immensely available on their websites. Therefore, each site was categorized according to the phases and levels proposed. In order to achieve this, 120 websites were evaluated by the two authors over a three-month period, from August to October 2020, and then categorized according to the phases and levels of (eMICA). The results show that there are deficiencies in the application of the eMICA model by both KSA and Egyptian travel agencies, generally, updating their websites, the absence of quality certification, offering secure online payment, virtual tours, and videos using Flash animation. In general, the Egyptian companies slightly outperformed the KSA ones in applying eMICA model.

Keywords: e-commerce, eMICA, Internet marketing, travel agencies, websites.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 635

Authors: M. Mousavi-Daramoroudi, H. Yousefnia, F. Abbasi-Davani, S. Zolghadri, S. Kakaei

Abstract:

Despite the appropriate characteristics of ¹⁷⁷Lu and DOTATOC, to our best knowledge, the therapeutic benefit of ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTATOC complex in breast cancer has not been reported until now. In this study, biodistribution of ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-TOC in mouse tumor model for evaluation of possible utilization of this complex in breast cancer treatment was investigated.¹⁷⁷Lu was prepared with the specific activity of 2.6-3 GBq.mg^-1 and radionuclidic purity higher than 99%. The radiolabeled complex was prepared in the optimized conditions with the radiochemical purity higher than 99%. The final solution was injected to the BALB/c mice with adenocarcinoma breast cancer. The biodistribution results showed major accumulation in the kidneys as the major excretion route and the somatostatin receptor-positive tissues such as pancreas compared with the other tissues. Also, significant uptake was observed in tumor even in longer time after injection. According to the results obtained in this research study, somatostatin receptors expressed in breast cancers can be targeted with DOTATOC analogues especially with ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTATOC as an ideal therapeutic agent.

Keywords: 177Lu, DOTATOC, adenocarcinoma, breast cancer, BALB/c mice.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 842

Authors: M. Moslehpour, S. Khorsandi

Abstract:

As transition to widespread use of IPv6 addresses has gained momentum, it has been shown to be vulnerable to certain security attacks such as those targeting Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) which provides the address resolution functionality in IPv6. To protect this protocol, Secure Neighbor Discovery (SEND) is introduced. This protocol uses Cryptographically Generated Address (CGA) and asymmetric cryptography as a defense against threats on integrity and identity of NDP. Although SEND protects NDP against attacks, it is computationally intensive due to Hash2 condition in CGA. To improve the CGA computation speed, we parallelized CGA generation process and used the available resources in a trusted network. Furthermore, we focused on the influence of the existence of malicious nodes on the overall load of un-malicious ones in the network. According to the evaluation results, malicious nodes have adverse impacts on the average CGA generation time and on the average number of tries. We utilized a Trust Management that is capable of detecting and isolating the malicious node to remove possible incentives for malicious behavior. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Trust Management System in detecting the malicious nodes and hence improving the overall system performance.

Keywords: NDP, SEND, CGA, modifier, malicious node.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1198

Authors: Kho Mei Ye, Hamzah Abdul Rahman

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying causes of late payment from the contractors- perspective in the Malaysian construction industry and to recommend effective solutions to mitigate late payment problems. The target groups of respondents in this study were Grades G3, G5, G6 and G7 contractors with specialization in building works and civil engineering works registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in Malaysia. Results from this study were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS 15.0). From this study, it was found that respondents have highest ranked five significant variables out of a total of forty-one variables which can caused late payment problems: a) cash flow problems due to deficiencies in client-s management capacity (mean = 3.96); b) client-s ineffective utilization of funds (mean = 3.88); c) scarcity of capital to finance the project (mean = 3.81); d) clients failure to generate income from bank when sales of houses do not hit the targeted amount (mean=3.72); and e) poor cash flow because of lack of proper process implementation, delay in releasing of the retention monies to contractor and delay in the evaluation and certification of interim and final payment (mean = 3.66).

Keywords: Underlying causes, late payment, constructionindustry, Malaysia.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7176

Authors: Ahmet E. Osmanlioglu

Abstract:

In this study, natural bentonite was used as natural clay material and samples were taken from the Kalecik district in Ankara. In this research, bentonite is the subject of an analysis from standpoint of assessing the basic properties of engineered barriers with respect to the buffer material. Bentonite and sand mixtures were prepared for tests. Some of clay minerals give relatively higher hydraulic conductivity and lower swelling pressure. Generally, hydraulic conductivity of these type clays is lower than <10-12 m/s. The hydraulic properties of clay-sand mixtures are evaluated to design engineered barrier specifications. Hydraulic conductivities of bentonite-sand mixture were found in the range of 1.2x10-10 to 9.3x10-10 m/s. Optimum B/S mixture ratio was determined as 35% in terms of hydraulic conductivity and mechanical stability. At the second stage of this study, all samples were compacted into cylindrical shape molds (diameter: 50 mm and length: 120 mm). The strength properties of compacted mixtures were better than the compacted bentonite. In addition, the larger content of the quartz sand in the mixture has the greater thermal conductivity.

Keywords: Bentonite, hydraulic conductivity, clay, nuclear waste disposal.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1410

Authors: Roshan Dharshana Yapa, Koichi Harada

Abstract:

Breast skin-line estimation and breast segmentation is an important pre-process in mammogram image processing and computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer. Limiting the area to be processed into a specific target region in an image would increase the accuracy and efficiency of processing algorithms. In this paper we are presenting a new algorithm for estimating skin-line and breast segmentation using fast marching algorithm. Fast marching is a partial-differential equation based numerical technique to track evolution of interfaces. We have introduced some modifications to the traditional fast marching method, specifically to improve the accuracy of skin-line estimation and breast tissue segmentation. Proposed modifications ensure that the evolving front stops near the desired boundary. We have evaluated the performance of the algorithm by using 100 mammogram images taken from mini-MIAS database. The results obtained from the experimental evaluation indicate that this algorithm explains 98.6% of the ground truth breast region and accuracy of the segmentation is 99.1%. Also this algorithm is capable of partially-extracting nipple when it is available in the profile.

Keywords: Mammogram, fast marching method, mathematical morphology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2665

Authors: I Gede Puja Astawa, Yoedy Moegiharto, Ahmad Zainudin, Imam Dui Agus Salim, Nur Annisa Anggraeni

Abstract:

Performance of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system can be improved by adding channel coding (error correction code) to detect and correct errors that occur during data transmission. One can use the convolution code. This paper present performance of OFDM using Space Time Block Codes (STBC) diversity technique use QAM modulation with code rate ½. The evaluation is done by analyzing the value of Bit Error Rate (BER) vs. Energy per Bit to Noise Power Spectral Density Ratio (Eb/No). This scheme is conducted 256 subcarrier transmits Rayleigh multipath channel in OFDM system. To achieve a BER of 10^-3 is required 10dB SNR in SISO-OFDM scheme. For 2x2 MIMO-OFDM scheme requires 10 dB to achieve a BER of 10^-3. For 4x4 MIMO-OFDM scheme requires 5 dB while adding convolution in a 4x4 MIMO-OFDM can improve performance up to 0 dB to achieve the same BER. This proves the existence of saving power by 3 dB of 4x4 MIMO-OFDM system without coding, power saving 7dB of 2x2 MIMO-OFDM and significant power savings from SISO-OFDM system

Keywords: Convolution code, OFDM, MIMO, QAM, BER.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3376

Authors: Amar Al-Obaidi, Verena Kräusel, Dirk Landgrebe

Abstract:

Induction assisted single point incremental forming (IASPIF) is a flexible method and can be simply utilized to form a high strength alloys. Due to the interaction between the mechanical and thermal properties during IASPIF an evaluation for the process is necessary to be performed analytically. Therefore, a numerical simulation was carried out in this paper. The numerical analysis was operated at both room and elevated temperatures then compared with experimental results. Fully coupled dynamic temperature displacement explicit analysis was used to simulated the hot single point incremental forming. The numerical analysis was indicating that during hot single point incremental forming were a combination between complicated compression, tension and shear stresses. As a result, the equivalent plastic strain was increased excessively by rising both the formed part depth and the heating temperature during forming. Whereas, the forming forces were decreased from 5 kN at room temperature to 0.95 kN at elevated temperature. The simulation shows that the maximum true strain was occurred in the stretching zone which was the same as in experiment.

Keywords: Induction heating, single point incremental forming, FE modeling, advanced high strength steel.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 925

Authors: G. Partheepan, D.K. Sehgal, R.K. Pandey

Abstract:

This paper presents a method for determining the uniaxial tensile properties such as Young-s modulus, yield strength and the flow behaviour of a material in a virtually non-destructive manner. To achieve this, a new dumb-bell shaped miniature specimen has been designed. This helps in avoiding the removal of large size material samples from the in-service component for the evaluation of current material properties. The proposed miniature specimen has an advantage in finite element modelling with respect to computational time and memory space. Test fixtures have been developed to enable the tension tests on the miniature specimen in a testing machine. The studies have been conducted in a chromium (H11) steel and an aluminum alloy (AR66). The output from the miniature test viz. load-elongation diagram is obtained and the finite element simulation of the test is carried out using a 2D plane stress analysis. The results are compared with the experimental results. It is observed that the results from the finite element simulation corroborate well with the miniature test results. The approach seems to have potential to predict the mechanical properties of the materials, which could be used in remaining life estimation of the various in-service structures.

Keywords: ABAQUS, finite element, miniature test, tensileproperties

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1722

Authors: Buket Boz, Alvaro Diez

Abstract:

Waste heat recovery by means of Organic Rankine Cycle is a promising technology for the recovery of engine exhaust heat. However, it is complex to find out the optimum cycle conditions with appropriate working fluids to match exhaust gas waste heat due to its high temperature. Hence, this paper focuses on comparing sub-critical and supercritical ORC conditions with eight working fluids on a combined diesel engine-ORC system. The model employs two ORC designs, Regenerative-ORC and Pre-Heating-Regenerative-ORC respectively. The thermodynamic calculations rely on the first and second law of thermodynamics, thermal efficiency and exergy destruction factors are the fundamental parameters evaluated. Additionally, in this study, environmental and safety, GWP (Global Warming Potential) and ODP (Ozone Depletion Potential), characteristic of the refrigerants are taken into consideration as evaluation criteria to define the optimal ORC configuration and conditions. Consequently, the studys outcomes reveal that supercritical ORCs with alkane and siloxane are more suitable for high temperature exhaust waste heat recovery in contrast to sub-critical conditions.

Keywords: Internal combustion engine, organic rankine cycle, waste heat recovery, working fluids.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1254

Authors: Somdech Rungsrisawat

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to study of consumer perception and understanding consumer buying behavior that related between satisfied and factors affecting the purchasing. Methodology can be classified between qualitative and quantitative approaches for the qualitative research were interviews from middlemen who bought organic vegetables, and middlemen related to production and marketing system. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The result show the reason to decision buying motives is Fresh products of organic vegetables is the most significant factor on individuals’ income, with a b of –.143, t = –2.470, the price of organic vegetables is the most significant factor on individuals’ income, with a b of .176, t = 2.561, p value = .011. The results show that most people with higher income think about the organic products are expensive and have negative attitudes towards organic vegetable as individuals with low and medium income level. Therefore, household income had a significant influence on the purchasing decision.

Keywords: Consumer behaviors, Consumer perceptions, Organic Vegetable.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2309

Authors: H.M. El-Khayat, N.M. Ismail, K.M. Mahmoud, F.M. Ragb, K.M. El-Said, B. B. Mostafa, F. A. El- Deeb, A.A. Tantawy

Abstract:

Seasonal survey of freshwater snails in different water courses in Egypt during two successive years included 13 snail species. They represented by Biomphalaria alexandrina, Bulinus truncatus, Physa acuta, Helisoma duryi, Lymnaea natalensis, Planorbis pantries, Cleopatra bulimoides, Lanistes carinatus, Bellamya unicolor, Melanoides tuberculata, Theodoxus niloticus, Succinia cleopatra and Valvata nilotica. B. alexandrina was most abundant during autumn and spring represented by 26and14 snails/site, respectively. B. truncatus was most abundant during winter (7.7and3.6snails/site) of the two years, respectively. L. natalensis was represented by 7snails/site in summer. The tolerance of different snail species to the chemical elements was determined seasonally and correlated to their abundance. In spring, autumn and winter, B. alexandrina was significantly found to live under the highest level of Pb, Cd,Cu, Na, K and Ca concentrations than the other species (p<0.01). Most snail species could be lived at approximately the same concentrations of Na, K and Ca during all seasons.

Keywords: chemical parameters, freshwater, snails, tolerance

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1627

Authors: Dai Zhimei, Hua Chen

Abstract:

The exploration of urban spatial evolution is an important part of urban development research. Therefore, the evolutionary modern Yangzhou urban spatial texture was taken as the research object, and Spatial Syntax was used as the main research tool, this paper explored Yangzhou spatial evolution law and its driving factors from the urban street network scale, district scale and street scale. The study has concluded that at the urban scale, Yangzhou urban spatial evolution is the result of a variety of causes, including physical and geographical condition, policy and planning factors, and traffic conditions, and the evolution of space also has an impact on social, economic, environmental and cultural factors. At the district and street scales, changes in space will have a profound influence on the history of the city and the activities of people. At the end of the article, the matters needing attention during the evolution of urban space were summarized.

Keywords: Space Syntax, spatial texture, urban space, Yangzhou.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 767

Authors: Houshmand E. Masoumi

Abstract:

Residential self-selection has gained increasing attention in the Western travel behavior research during the past decade. Many studies in the US, UK, and Germany conclude that the role of individuals’ residential location choice on commute travel behavior is more important than that of the built environment or at least it has considerable effects. However the effectiveness of location choice in many countries and cultures like Iran is unclear. This study examines the self-selections in two neighborhoods in Tehran. As a part of a research about the influences of land use on travel behavior information about people’s location preferences was collected by direct questioning. The findings show that the main reasons for selecting the location of residential units are related to socio-economic factors such as rise of house price and affordability of house prices. Transportation has little impacts on location decisions. Moreover, residential self-selection accounts for only 3 to 7.5 percent of the pedestrian, PT, and car trips.

Keywords: Residential self-selection, Tehran, travel behavior, urban transportation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2387

Authors: R.A.Mahdavinejad

Abstract:

In this paper, multi-processors job shop scheduling problems are solved by a heuristic algorithm based on the hybrid of priority dispatching rules according to an ant colony optimization algorithm. The objective function is to minimize the makespan, i.e. total completion time, in which a simultanous presence of various kinds of ferons is allowed. By using the suitable hybrid of priority dispatching rules, the process of finding the best solution will be improved. Ant colony optimization algorithm, not only promote the ability of this proposed algorithm, but also decreases the total working time because of decreasing in setup times and modifying the working production line. Thus, the similar work has the same production lines. Other advantage of this algorithm is that the similar machines (not the same) can be considered. So, these machines are able to process a job with different processing and setup times. According to this capability and from this algorithm evaluation point of view, a number of test problems are solved and the associated results are analyzed. The results show a significant decrease in throughput time. It also shows that, this algorithm is able to recognize the bottleneck machine and to schedule jobs in an efficient way.

Keywords: Job shops scheduling, Priority dispatching rules, Makespan, Hybrid heuristic algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1661

Authors: P. Gudelj, E. Franić, M. Kolega

Abstract:

Mental health is crucial for personal, social, and socio-economic development, becoming an increasingly relevant topic, especially in the post-global pandemic era. One vulnerable demographic comprises students who, during the pandemic, faced challenges such as adapting to new educational methods, societal or residential changes, heightened stress, responsibilities, and entering the job market. These life challenges proved insurmountable for some individuals during this phase. This research aimed to examine students' attitudes towards individuals seeking psychological help. By gaining a better understanding of young people's perceptions of seeking psychological assistance, a clearer insight into how to make psychological support more accessible and acceptable can be achieved. A questionnaire was completed by 210 students from various disciplines at the University of Zagreb. While the majority of students expressed a positive attitude towards seeking psychological help, a very small percentage reported having sought it. One of the most common obstacles to seeking appropriate help was a lack of financial means, with the most significant motivators being the positive experiences of those who sought help and an affordable cost.

Keywords: Mental health, students, psychological support, attitudes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 47

Authors: N. Areerachakul

Abstract:

In developing countries located in monsoon areas like Thailand where rainwater is currently of no value for urban dwellers due to easily access to piped water supply at each household, studies in rainwater harvesting for domestic use are of low interest. However it is needed to undertake research to find out appropriate rainwater harvesting systems particularly for small urban communities that are recently developed from a full rural structure to urban context. As a matter of fact, in such transitional period, relying on only common water resources is risky. With some specific economic settings, land use patterns, and historical and cultural context that dominate perceptions of water users in the study area, the level of service in this study may certainly be different from megacities or cities located in industrial zone. The overviews of some available technologies and background of rainwater harvesting including alternate resource are included in this paper. Among other sources of water supply, ground water use as the water resource of Thailand and also in the study area.

Keywords: Developing country, water supply, rainwater, ground water.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2568

Authors: V. Piscopo

Abstract:

In the classical buckling analysis of rectangular plates subjected to the concurrent action of shear and uniaxial forces, the Euler shear buckling stress is generally evaluated separately, so that no influence on the shear buckling coefficient, due to the in-plane tensile or compressive forces, is taken into account. In this paper the buckling problem of simply supported rectangular plates, under the combined action of shear and uniaxial forces, is discussed from the beginning, in order to obtain new project formulas for the shear buckling coefficient that take into account the presence of uniaxial forces. Furthermore, as the classical expression of the shear buckling coefficient for simply supported rectangular plates is considered only a “rough" approximation, as the exact one is defined by a system of intersecting curves, the convergence and the goodness of the classical solution are analyzed, too. Finally, as the problem of the Euler shear buckling stress evaluation is a very important topic for a variety of structures, (e.g. ship ones), two numerical applications are carried out, in order to highlight the role of the uniaxial stresses on the plating scantling procedures and the goodness of the proposed formulas.

Keywords: Buckling analysis, Shear, Uniaxial Stresses.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2925

Authors: Shatha A. Yousif, Qasim M. Zamil, Hasan Y. Al Muhi, Jamal A. Al Shammari

Abstract:

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the major vegetable crops that are grown world –wide because of its economic importance. This experiment investigated the effect of local sands (River Base, Al-Ekader and Karbala) on number and total weight of minitubers. Statistical analysis revealed that there were no significant differences among sand cultures in number of stem/plant, chlorophyll index and tubers dry weight. River Base sand had the highest plant height (74.9 cm), leaf number/plant number (39.3), leaf area (84.4 dcm2⁄plant), dry weight/plant (26.31), tubers number/plant (8.5), tubers weight/plant (635.53 gm) and potato tuber yields/trove (28.60 kg), whereas the Karbala sand had lower performance. All the characters had positive and significant correlation with yields except the traits number of stem and tuber dry weight.

Keywords: Correlation, Potato, Sand Culture, Yield.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2643

Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

Abstract:

It is suggested to evaluate environmental performance of energy sector using Data Envelopment Analysis with nondiscretionary factors (DEA-ND) with relative indicators as inputs and outputs. The latter allows for comparison of the objects essentially different in size. Inclusion of non-discretionary factors serves separation of the indicators that are beyond the control of the objects. A virtual perfect object comprised of maximal outputs and minimal inputs was added to the group of actual ones. In this setting, explicit solution of the DEA-ND problem was obtained. Energy sector of the United States was analyzed using suggested approach for the period of 1980 – 2006 with expected values of economic indicators for 2030 used for forming the perfect object. It was obtained that environmental performance has been increasing steadily for the period from 7.7% through 50.0% but still remains well below the prospected level

Keywords: DEA with Non Discretionary Factors, Environmental Performance, Energy Sector, Explicit Solution, Perfect Object.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1518

Authors: Yang Fu, Jaime Rodrigo Navarro, Jose F. Monserrat, Faiza Bouchmal, Oscar Carrasco Quilis

Abstract:

Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) is considered a promising solution for future autonomous driving. From Release 16 to Release 17, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced the definitions and services for 5G New Radio (NR) V2X. Since establishing a simulator for C-V2X communications is an essential preliminary step to achieve reliable and stable communication links, this paper proposes a complete framework of a link-level simulator based on the 3GPP specifications for the Physical Sidelink Share Channel (PSSCH) of the 5G NR Physical Layer (PHY). In this framework, several algorithms in the receiver part, i.e., sliding window in channel estimation and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE)-based equalization, are developed. Finally, the performance of the developed PSSCH receiver is validated through extensive simulations under different assumptions.

Keywords: Yang Fu, Jaime Rodrigo Navarro, Jose F. Monserrat, Faiza Bouchmal, Oscar Carrasco Quilis

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Lina Paola Orozco-Marín, Yuliet Montoya, John Bustamante

Abstract:

Ischemic events can culminate in acute myocardial infarction with irreversible cardiac lesions that cannot be restored due to the limited regenerative capacity of the heart. Tissue engineering proposes therapeutic alternatives by using biomaterials to resemble the native extracellular medium combined with healthy and functional cells. This research focused on developing a natural thermosensitive hydrogel, its physical-chemical characterization and in vitro biocompatibility determination. Hydrogels’ morphological characterization was carried out through scanning electron microscopy and its chemical characterization by employing Infrared Spectroscopy technic. In addition, the biocompatibility was determined using fetal human ventricular cardiomyocytes cell line RL-14 and the MTT cytotoxicity test according to the ISO 10993-5 standard. Four biocompatible and thermosensitive hydrogels were obtained with a three-dimensional internal structure and two gelation times. The results show the potential of the hydrogel to increase the cell survival rate to the cardiac cell therapies under investigation and lay the foundations to continue with its characterization and biological evaluation both in vitro and in vivo models.

Keywords: cardiac cell therapy, cardiac ischemia, natural polymers, thermosensitive hydrogel

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 728

Authors: A. Faro, D. Giordano, F. Maiorana

Abstract:

Data mining uses a variety of techniques each of which is useful for some particular task. It is important to have a deep understanding of each technique and be able to perform sophisticated analysis. In this article we describe a tool built to simulate a variation of the Kohonen network to perform unsupervised clustering and support the entire data mining process up to results visualization. A graphical representation helps the user to find out a strategy to optmize classification by adding, moving or delete a neuron in order to change the number of classes. The tool is also able to automatically suggest a strategy for number of classes optimization.The tool is used to classify macroeconomic data that report the most developed countries? import and export. It is possible to classify the countries based on their economic behaviour and use an ad hoc tool to characterize the commercial behaviour of a country in a selected class from the analysis of positive and negative features that contribute to classes formation.

Keywords: Unsupervised classification, Kohonen networks, macroeconomics, Visual data mining, cluster interpretation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1555

Authors: Yilmaz Bayhan, Emin Güzel, Ömer Barış Özlüoymak, Ahmet İnce, Abdullah Sessiz

Abstract:

In this study, determining of reduced tillage techniques in green bean farming as a second crop after harvesting wheat was targeted. To this aim, four different soil tillage methods namely, heavy-duty disc harrow (HD), rotary tiller (ROT), heavy-duty disc harrow plus rotary tiller (HD+ROT) and no-tillage (NT) (seeding by direct drill) were examined. Experiments were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications. The highest green beans yields were obtained in HD+ROT and NT as 5,862.1 and 5,829.3 Mg/ha, respectively. The lowest green bean yield was found in HD as 3,076.7 Mg/ha. The highest fuel consumption was measured 30.60 L ha^-1 for HD+ROT whereas the lowest value was found 7.50 L ha^-1 for NT. No tillage method gave the best results for fuel consumption and effective power requirement. It is concluded that no-tillage method can be used in second crop green bean in the Thrace Region due to economic and erosion conditions.

Keywords: Soil tillage, green bean, vegetative, generative, yield.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1075

Authors: Ch. Antonopoulos, Th. Kapourniotis, V. Triantafillou

Abstract:

Optimum communication and performance in Wireless Sensor Networks, constitute multi-facet challenges due to the specific networking characteristics as well as the scarce resource availability. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that isolated layer based approaches often do not meet the demands posed by WSNs applications due to omission of critical inter-layer interactions and dependencies. As a counterpart, cross-layer is receiving high interest aiming to exploit these interactions and increase network performance. However, in order to clearly identify existing dependencies, comprehensive performance studies are required evaluating the effect of different critical network parameters on system level performance and behavior.This paper-s main objective is to address the need for multi-parametric performance evaluations considering critical network parameters using a well known network simulator, offering useful and practical conclusions and guidelines. The results reveal strong dependencies among considered parameters which can be utilized by and drive future research efforts, towards designing and implementing highly efficient protocols and architectures.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, Communication Systems, cross-layer architectures, simulation based performance evaluation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1518

Authors: Jun Seok Kim, Cheong-Sool Park, Jun-Geol Baek, Sung-Shick Kim

Abstract:

Control chart pattern recognition is one of the most important tools to identify the process state in statistical process control. The abnormal process state could be classified by the recognition of unnatural patterns that arise from assignable causes. In this study, a wavelet based neural network approach is proposed for the recognition of control chart patterns that have various characteristics. The procedure of proposed control chart pattern recognizer comprises three stages. First, multi-resolution wavelet analysis is used to generate time-shape and time-frequency coefficients that have detail information about the patterns. Second, distance based features are extracted by a bi-directional Kohonen network to make reduced and robust information. Third, a back-propagation network classifier is trained by these features. The accuracy of the proposed method is shown by the performance evaluation with numerical results.

Keywords: Control chart pattern recognition, Multi-resolution wavelet analysis, Bi-directional Kohonen network, Back-propagation network, Feature extraction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2470

Authors: A. Gandomkar, R. Dehghani

Abstract:

Drought is natural and climate phenomenon and in fact server as a part of climate in an area and also it has significant environmental, social ,and economic consequences .drought differs from the other natural disasters from this viewpoint that it s a creeping phenomenon meaning that it progresses little and its difficult to determine the time of its onset and termination .most of the drought definitions are on based on precipitation shortage and consequently ,the shortage of water some of the activities related to the water such as agriculture In this research ,drought condition in Fars province was evacuated using SPI method within a 37 year – statistical –period(1974-2010)and maps related to the drought were prepared for each of the statistical period years. According to the results obtained from this research, the years 1974, 1976, 1975, 1982 with SPI (-1.03, 0.39, -1.05, -1.49) respectively, were the doughiest years and 1996,1997,2000 with SPI (2.49, 1.49, 1.46, 1.04) respectively, the most humid within the studying time series and the rest are in more normal conditions in the term of drought.

Keywords: Fars Province, Drought, SPI Method, Time Series

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1575

Authors: A. Khosravi, S. Ghadirian, J. S. McCartney

Abstract:

Evaluation of the seismic-induced settlement of an unsaturated soil layer depends on several variables, among which the small strain shear modulus, G_max, and soil’s state of stress have been demonstrated to be of particular significance. Recent interpretation of trends in G_max revealed considerable effects of the degree of saturation and hydraulic hysteresis on the shear stiffness of soils in unsaturated states. Accordingly, the soil layer is expected to experience different settlement behaviors depending on the soil saturation and seasonal weathering conditions. In this study, a semi-empirical formulation was adapted to extend an existing G_max model to infer hysteretic effects along different paths of the SWRC including scanning curves. The suitability of the proposed approach is validated against experimental results from a suction-controlled resonant column test and from data reported in literature. The model was observed to follow the experimental data along different paths of the SWRC, and showed a slight hysteresis in shear modulus along the scanning curves.

Keywords: Hydraulic hysteresis, Scanning path, Small strain shear modulus, Unsaturated soil.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1568